Marius the Epicurean
"Set in the Second Century, A.D., against the backdrop of a Roman Empire on the verge of decline, Marius the Epicurean is the story of the philosophical and spiritual development of Marius, a young Italian serving as amanuensis to the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, Marius explores the various systems of philosophy in search of an elusive vision of love, moving from Epicureanism to Cyrenaicism and finally Stoicism before finding what he had sougnt in the terrible beauty of Christian martyrdom."--Publisher.